Radical Lifestyle? Fanaticism?

Living radically

On May 8 (my previous blog), I suggested that the drastic times we live in require Christians to follow a radical lifestyle. I mentioned two aspects that characterize a radical lifestyle: Holding fast to the faith, and perseverance. Lip service to either does not imply living radically. Radical adherence to both does. Living out what you profess to believe requires quite a large amount of sacrifice. E.g. what do you do about the poor? Are any of your actions or words racist? Will you easily lie to save your own skin? When confronted with persecution for Jesus’ sake? How are you doing with the non-life-threatening persecutions we now may suffer? What will you do if you are ever really in danger for your faith?

Living radically may bring on persecution

I warned that we are bound to be persecuted for our faith.

How will we survive?

Two things guarantee that we will be able to make it: Building our lives on the Word of God as it appears in the Bible, and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.

So what does that mean?

It means that we love and respect the Bible. The expression that became fashionable in the seventies – “God said it; I believe it; that settles it” – should be part of our daily approach to life. The Bible makes sense if you believe it. There is a step of faith that is required in our association with the Bible that, if taken, makes everything falls into place. That step is a child-like acceptance of the Book as containing everything that God wanted us to know about Him, “for life and faith”.

It also means we cultivate a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. God intended that the ministry of the Holy Spirit should as much a part of our lives as it was of the early church. The translation of the Greek word often associated with Him as “helper” describes quite accurately how He wants to be known by us – that he should be involved in every aspect of our lives, spiritually as well as in a very practical sense, as our guide and adviser.

Concomitant with the appreciation of and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit we should live with the very real expectation that He will intervene in our daily lives in a powerful manner. I have seen this expectation being fulfilled in many miracles occurring before our eyes. Of these, the change that came over people’s lives at being born again is undoubtedly the greatest. Other signs of the power of God are miracles of healing and deliverance from all sorts of demonic oppression. Countless examples of answers to prayer would also be counted among the instances of the evidence of the power of God.

Church meetings should be characterized by the very real awareness of the powerful presence of God. Of course, this is only possible if churches are committed to following the leading of the holy Spirit rather than clinging to some ecclesiastical programme. (Somewhat edited, from my book: What Has Your Church Become, available on both Takealot and Amazon).

And what about the naysayers?

So what about all the issues, questions, so-called logical objections, arguments, differences of interpretation…? These are usually because people simply do not want to accept the simple message of the Bible. What about the mistakes Christians make? Yes, so what? Do you know anyone that never makes a mistake? We are not supposed to be perfect, only to profess that we serve a perfect God – who, by the way, is the only God.